Function-key shennanigans reminds me of an apple laptop from years and years ago, well before the unibodies came out, where the function keys were hard up against the screen - hit a function key, and you bang your fingers against the screen (well, most of the time).
Every personal computing device is either a) a rough prototype for some Apple product or b) a shameless knockoff of one. The Carbon touchstrip was the former.
The former is visible without looking down at your hands the latter is easy to press. I believe this combines the worst of both worlds.
I don't know how to address your last sentence it sounds clever but it means virtually nothing. If apple does it first its a knockoff if someone else does it first its a rough prototype of something apple will ultimately do better. Heads I win tails you lose?
1. Questionable utility. Sure, there's an icon for 'copy' and 'paste', but I cannot imagine it being easier for anyone to hunt along a non tactile touch surface located in an awkward position to hit that icon rather than just using Ctrl + C (or the mouse, which you've just made your selection with). That's a shortcut almost everyone knows.
2. Poor/Non-existent third party software support. Basically works for IE and Windows Explorer and that's it.
3. Software that drives the screen is poorly made and crashes occasionally.
4. The strip is a 2 bit/pixel B&W screen that is hard to read and is not backlit.